Of Mice and Treasures In Heaven

My half filled box of donations--before God smacked me upside the head

I went through my basement pantry to weed out any food that I didn't want to donate to a local homeless shelter.  I'm attending a fundraising luncheon this weekend to support the shelter and they are also having a donation drop off bin.

I pulled out the cereal that the kids don't like, the whole wheat pasta that the Hubs won't eat, a few other random items, and then went to grab the romen noodles.  I grabbed the first bag, expired.  Oops,  Into the trash.  I grabbed the second bag.  EWWWWWW!!!!!!  The second bag was chewed up, almost all of the noodles missing.  A MOUSE!!!!  In my house!

I gingerly finished going through the romen noodles and breathed a sigh of relief that it was just the one bag.  Maybe those mice limited their party to the one bag.  I went through the rest of the shelves examining every box and bag, looking for the telltale signs of entry.  My first clue was the shredded plastic under the pasta boxes.  Sure enough they'd eaten through a plastic bag of pasta.  An entire pound of noodles.  Gone.  I'm sensing that my mice are carbaholics.

Thankfully those were the only foods touched.  So far.  I pulled out some empty storage bins and put every food item that was in a box or bag into the bins and snapped on the lids.  I went to the store and bought a 4 pack of snap traps and a 4 pack of dcon bait stations and set them all around the basement.  I can only pray that this eliminates the problem.

(I thought about inserting a picture of the dead mouse we caught overnight 

here but thought that might scar some of my readers)

Once I dealt with the mouse problem, I got back to my donation box.  I added shampoos that we no longer liked, razors that didn't work for me, toothpaste that the kids hated (all of these were stockpile items and unused so don't get grossed out).  I purged the rest of the food items that we wouldn't eat.

I looked at my salsa stock and decided that I really did need 13 jars of it in my stockpile.  I looked at my pasta sauce and agreed that 10 jars was an acceptable quantity to own of a food item that my husband can't stand.  I considered throwing in a new bag of socks sitting in my closet waiting for the next child who puts holes in theirs but I didn't add it to the box.  We'll use those socks one day.

Despite the fact that I had a full box, all this stuff-- It cost me nothing.

I held back my surplus of the things that truly matter to me.  No, I won't share my salsa.  No, I won't share my pasta sauce.  Don't you touch my .....  It's mine!

Knock, knock.

Uh oh.  God has something to say about that.  Lisa, you're storing up your treasures here on earth, and you just saw evidence that mice can destroy it.  Is this really the person you want to be???  A person who hoards her surplus and won't share it with people who truly, desperately need it???

Lisa, put those socks in the box already.  Yes, Lord.  Lisa, put five jars of salsa and five jars of pasta sauce in that box.  Yes, Lord.  Go pick out your absolute favorite food in that pantry and put it in the box.  Yes, Lord.  (So long cheesy Chex Mix that I got for free last week--I can't eat you anyway for the next three weeks, but I was storing you for the end of my fast).  Lisa, fill up this entire box until there is no room left.  Then you can be done with this exercise.  Yes, Lord.

And so I will.